Promoting Civic responsibility among young people
Youth Empowerment &Rehabilitation Projects (YERP) Uganda recently joined Students for Global Democracy (SGD) in extension of a project on responsible citizenship and civic culture to instill a sense of civic responsibility in Ugandan youth by engaging youth in community service activities and showing youth the real-life consequences of violence and the benefits of constructive civic engagement to Mbarara municipality and the surrounding areas in Western Uganda .
Uganda has witnessed a rise in youth-led violence and destructive youth political engagement in the past two decades. Politicians manipulate youth to advance their campaigns and intimidate opponents. In addition, university students resort to violent strikes to contest high tuition fees and professor absenteeism, and slum youth use violence to decry unemployment and poor living conditions. Most interventions to improve Ugandan youth attitudes and civic engagement involve psycho-social support or punitive measures such as imprisonment; however, these approaches fail to address widespread apathy, ignorance, and disenchantment among the youth population.
SGD is filling this gap by involving youth in community service activities including clean-up exercises and tree planting, prison visits and nonviolence fora, among other activities in Kampala and Jinja, Wakiso and Mpigi districts and now in Mbarara municipality working with YERP UGANDA
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